Indiana University is working on a plan that would allow it to seek federal aid to "disaster proof" its campuses without going through county officials.

Members of IU's Office of Emergency Management and Continuity and the Polis Center at IUPUI met recently to discuss the plan. The university hopes to have it approved and ready for review by the Federal Emergency Management Agency by March.

Assistant IU Emergency Management Director Ken Long tells The Herald-Times that IU wants to seek funding to move utilities out of bottom floors to mitigate water issues during a flood. Other options would be to retrofit buildings and create better refuge from disasters.

Those could be sought separately from county requests under IU's proposal.